Starcraft Tales
by Mogami Kumagawa
Summary: A story about gaming. After Zaimokuza asks them for coaching, Hachiman and Yukino get into the game of Starcraft II and decide to play competitively against each other. [One-shot]


_Your drones are being crushed._

"Way to go Hikigaya-kun" I can make a guess and say that the person who said that, a girl with long black hair and a good example of Japanese beauty, did not even look at me while saying that. Instead, she should be looking at the monitor of her laptop while typing at impossible speed and clicking the mouse faster than Yuigahama can type on her phone.

For reference's sake that's… Kind of fast.

 _Your warriors have engaged the enemy._

"What can I say? This is pretty hard, you know?" I said I would guess because I'm doing just the same. Clicking and smashing those buttons in a race of concentration. Of course, I had to reply because if I didn't it could have been taken as a form of weakness.

"Well, if anything it is truly remarkable that you can play this sort of game at all. I'd have thought your brain wasn't developed enough for high-level processes like playing a strategy game. But look at you, proving me wrong. It's quite remarkable" The girl in question is Yukinoshita Yukino. A clubmate of mine with a sharp tongue and bad manners.

Our simultaneous clicking is because we're playing a game Zaimokuza brought up a couple of days ago. It's called Starcraft 2 and it's so popular there's professional players all around the world.

Zaimokuza wanted us to help him get better at playing. At first Yukinoshita refused but since I agreed to help him out when I had free time, she accepted it as a proper request.

I really shouldn't have forgotten her competitive side. Hope it doesn't happen again.

So the next day we took laptops from the school with the help of Hiratsuka-sensei and thanks to Yukinoshita for **buying it**. Of course, Yuigahama didn't participate and decided instead to go and play Uno with her clique.

Freaking Uno…

In any case, as both Yukinoshita and I helped Zaimokuza out we found ourselves more and more into the game. There wasn't any indication that Yukinoshita would like it. Being herself the moment she challenged me to a 1v1 was really so out of place, so utterly bizarre that remembering it still hurts.

Right now, we're playing again and it's come to the point that we closed club activities for the sake of the game.

Red zerg and blue protoss are now scattered all around the map and none of us has the upper hand.

As the announcers said before, the protoss' stalkers were shooting at the drones of a hatchery before crab-like things freed themselves from the ground and begun attacking. With a click, the stalkers disappeared and reappeared on the high ground. On the high ground, cobra-like zerg with frontal claws were waiting.

""That's…!"" Both of us let a low cry as we tried to get our units to safety.

Giantic (In-game) robotic spiders appeared on the zerg's field of vision and begun mowing down the snakes with laser beams….

…

That sounds so cool…

In reality, colossi appeared and begun hurting the hydras attacking the stalkers. Roaches were being targeted too, but mostly the hydralisks.

The immediate response was flying-bat things. A small swarm of mutalisks appeared and targeted the colossi. In response the stalkers blinked again to get nearer and begun shooting at the mutas.

 _You must construct additional pylons._

"This feels so wrong in many levels" My comment was followed by another blink and the stalkers were near a Hive.

"Maybe because the larvae reminds you of yourself? Too bad those long-lost relatives are behind the screen, huh. Want me to say hello in your stead? Truly disgusting"

"Look at who's speaking!" An overseer gave away a small cloaked unit that was briefly shot down by the remaining hydras "How can you say something like that the way you're playing?!"

"Details, Hikigaya-kun. Even if I were to crawl on the floor I'd be more dignified than you could hope to be"

Our computers were opposed so we couldn't see what the other could. But for the both of us it was a simple guess.

Queens spawning more larvae.

Gateways teleporting units through a Warp prism almost directly on the side of conflict.

Roach-like creatures crawled from a side. Infestors, a lot of them, and they spawned eggs that soon enough became infested terrans that begun shooting as their timers begun.

Why are there infested terran in this game? I mean, sure it's the unit's ability but… There are no terran in this map! Hell, we're _underwater!_

Brood lords came to aid and suddenly the tables were turned. Most protoss units were cleaned up and the battle was over.

Okay, in about twenty seconds units will arrive as Yukinoshita will surely push forward. The first protoss were defeated and a hatchery was lost. Think Hachiman, think! Was that exchange worth it? Hatcheries are slow to be built up, though we're talking about colossi! Those are expensive!

Quick, keep researching. Defense upgrades before attack ones. Make sure to get air units ready as well…

The clicking didn't stop. In fact it became faster as both of us readied our new armies to engage in battle once more.

Gotta place some static defense on my main base… Maybe I should make a quick drop on Yukinoshita's base? Some disposable units to slow down the sure push she's doing right now? What if she does the same? Overlords are good for that but have to be evolved into carrying units with the terrible downside of not being able to become overseers afterwards. Carrying instead of detection? Hell no. Who would do that? Warp prisms are better at that since they can warp in units directly from the gateway…

Sure, but Yukinoshita must have set up static defense in her base as well. That hatchery being busted must have been a good reminder to protect her main base from surprise attacks…

"Thinking about giving up Hikigaya-kun?" Crap! I stopped clicking. I hope she didn't get too far ahead because of my lapse.

"I'd ask the same Yukinoshita. I was thinking about giving you the opportunity to surrender now"

Click, click, click. My main army is in hotkey one and the support one in hotkey two. A vespine geyser was exhausted, I immediately sent to build another extractor in the nearest geyser available. Unfortunately, I soon found out Yukinoshita has taken that base.

"Oh, what a little cute thing" Yukinoshita must have seen my worker on the map since she grinned "Mind if I _crush_ it?!"

Aaaand it's gone. Dammit.

Both of us had detectors all over the map, so of course she would pick it up even before it came near the geyser. Overlords and Observers were spread across the map. On the minimap red and blue squares were nearby in many locations yet they didn't attack. Some overseers as well, so some observers were picked up, probably gonna be killed when the zerg army arrives.

 _Spawn more Overlords._

"That Fenix announcer was a good buy" Yukinoshita commented. That's rich coming from the girl who bought a lot of skins and announcers just to personalize her game more. Be it zerg, protoss or terran, if the unit has a buy to unlock skin then she has it, even the war chest ones which I'm not really sure how she obtained them since the season passed already… You really shouldn't lord over me so much just because you've got money! Spending money in announcers is stupid! Now I feel stupid! Why? I don't know!

On a side note, we haven't seen Yuigahama at all today. She probably didn't come since I told her we were still going to play today. She'd probably arrive and be like "Oh, you guys are playing again…" And awkwardly leave after apologizing for something she had to do…

 _Your forces are under attack._

What?! Already?!

Yukinoshita's forces appeared on one of my bases. A horde of flying units along a few on terrain mowed down the unsuspected base without much effort before I could react.

"Dammit!" I tried to respond. Most of my army was built already, so I sent them. The idea is to go for a surround by going in both directions at once.

Ultralisks were sent against stalkers. Mutalisks found themselves engaging against void rays. Both Yukinoshita and I attempted to mobilize small forces separately but there were so many units that the computer sort of lagged at times.

Roaches were lifted from the underground and smartly turned into ravagers as their life went a little too low for one's comfort. Immortals tanked damage in the front lines as I sent detectors to the front and picked a couple of infestors moving stealthily underground. Locust found their target and descended from the sky; the small unit is weak but strangely good at dealing damage. They are disposable so it's fine.

Bug-like units were put down, mechanical ones exploded as their shields vanished and were targeted while unprotected. My units killed a lot of Yukinoshita's. Zerglings came to aid followed by banelings behind, archons killed single units with target fire but all in all, Yukinoshita's push was succeeding.

"Okay then…" So I did it. The drop I was thinking about, I sent it to Yukinoshita's base.

"Wha…" Her startled expression changed her expression for a split second before it turned into cold concentration. My first push hasn't been that good. Originally I intended to send forth more units but the risk of being subjected to an attack still remained. With several small conflicts without a sure winner I begun suspecting Yukinoshita was secretly preparing a force to make a push but such a thing didn't happen. Besides, our resources were beginning to fade away. Protoss units are expensive, but are very effective plus their two lifebars at the cost of no regeneration. On the other side, zerg units are rather cheap and can regenerate while still/burrowed so they last longer; they are mostly disposable and armies can be rebuilt from scratch given you have enough larvae and resources to do so.

Our chosen race speaks lots of our personal mindsets and it's thanks to that that I know that Yukinoshita wouldn't focus all that much on static defense.

I just need to pick up the right angle.

A spore crawler picked on a Warp prism just as it was coming. It was sent elsewhere as the conflict still lingered on my side of the map.

Concentrate Hachiman, find the right spot!

"No, you're not!" Seeing some of Yukinoshita's forces retreating I just knew what was going to happen. Either she picks on my drop before it actually happens or she succeeds on her push so I did what a real man would do.

NekomimiOjou wins

"Fuuuu…" I let out a sigh before leaning on my chair.

"My Hikigaya-kun, you resisted well enough" Yukinoshita teased before stretching her arms.

"Hey, I got you for a moment, it's not my fault since I'm still adjusting!"

The screen was a reminder of the game, I stared at the screen for a moment before going to the statics.

The zerg player have won.

…

"By the way, what was that about me and larvae? For a zerg-fag you have quite the mouth to spite me" My comment made her twitch for a moment. Seriously, if she's going to play with the swarm then she should at least try to like it! It's not my fault she's not good at protoss!

"Oh, but Hikigaya-kun the larva _do_ remind me of you. That's why when I see them I immediately turn them into zerglings or hydralisks or mutalisks. That's why my units were greater in number… Think about it. Is that not why I won? Then perhaps a thanks goes accordingly. Thank you Hikigaya-kun, thanks to your disgusting face I was able to win"

By all means, that logic was so off the rails I couldn't come up with a proper response immediately.

"Hope you enjoyed it. Your face when I bursted that hive cluster open"

"The overlords didn't pick that one…!" She mumbled before coughing "I must admit that was clever, how did you get the warp prism without being detected?"

"There was a small gap between the overlords in here" At first I tried playing zerg. The aggressive playstyle required did not suit me but using the overlords was quite easy. In truth I sent more than two prisms in different locations. Among them one wasn't picked up so I advanced. When she was distracted enough I begun moving the colossi to support the push.

"I see… Clever boy"

"Well, that makes you the winner of today. Well done Yukinoshita" It came out somewhat forced, but I managed to congratulate her properly. The only one who should look sore while losing is none other than the Ice Queen herself.

"You gave a decent fight Hikigaya-kun" She said the closes thing to a friendly greeting she could muster, which I appreciate.

* * *

They day before, when we began dueling…

"You are playing with the zerg" Hikigaya-kun muttered while deadpanning at his screen. Embarrassment couldn't even _begin_ to describe how badly I wanted to burrow myself underground and scream while holding my _Pan-san the Panda_ plushy.

When Zaimokuza Yoshiteru introduced us to the game, I thought it was interesting to see low-lives like game developers do something that actually exercise the brain. The chuuni's chosen race, the protoss, was fantastic-looking with good units and overall it was like the best out of the three ones.

Zaimokuza-san has explained the basics of the way the races fight. The terran were well balanced and with a lot of options, but with so many options it was hard to concentrate in one strategy. Nonetheless I wasn't planning on trying them out, from the beginning I picked an interest on the protoss so I tried them… Only to realize my forces always fell short to the enemy's.

For the sake of learning the game mechanics I tried out the zerg. Obviously, Hikigaya-kun would play with them so knowing how they work will be a great upper hand the next day. After buying the proper skins I begun playing with that concrete mindset.

I played ten games, and ten games I came out victorious.

I stared with horror at the screen as one of my queens was cut out by the winning screen before spawning the creep tumor I ordered it to. There was a feeling of wrongness from winning with abominable creatures that spit acid and throw spikes from their bodies. The roach structure is especially disgusting with a maggot-like creature coming out of it from time to time, and the sheer numbers of zerglings that can be spawned with a handful of minerals sent chills down my spine as they utterly _crushed_ the lonely protoss units. A small but sure realization hit me.

 _I love this._

With disgust I kept on crushing marines, zealots and other zerg alike. With repulsion I sent burrowed roaches and destroyed engineering facilities and gateways with ease. And with dark fascination I morphed zerglings into banelings and made them sacrifice themselves for my victory.

 _Zerg rush faggot_

Was the message one sent me before my early zerglings picked on their base. Poor guy, he doesn't know how to play. He must have just realized the power of the swarm!

"…Yes. I believe there shouldn't be a problem with it" Nonetheless it was hard to do so after berating Hikigaya-kun for that same reason. I regretted having said those things about him playing Zerg when it came out to be so fun… "You… You are…" My first overlord picked on a warping structure…

He's playing _protoss_?!

"Yes" Was his quick reply "Who know? Maybe I'm good at the _high_ and _noble_ protoss more than in the _disgusting_ and _malformed_ zerg, huh" Each word stabbed me as hard as a thousand degree knife. It hurt so much I didn't feel bad at all after I sent the first six or so zerglings to his base and won the first game in time record "Zerg rush, huh"

From that point on we kept on playing and I felt more and more comfortable with sending nightmarish creatures to his base and fighting him near my disgusting hydra dens.

Yuigahama said it, it doesn't matter who you play at, the most important thing is to have fun. She probably said that out of pity after seeing the zerg portraits… I'm sorry Yuigahama-san. Although you're not into this game I'm sorry for betraying your trust. Seems like I've been infested~!

Oh, that reminds me… I should spawn more overlords soon…

* * *

A/N

First of all, I love zerg but I'm better at protoss myself, but it won't stop me from learning how to play them!

In any case, this is second game-based one-shot I've made, it's a really good breather write and fun to imagine Yukinoshita and 8man gaming. Didn't include Yui because it's a strategy game and she wouldn't like PC gaming to begin with... I think. Wanted to add Hayama as the terran player but felt it'd complicate things more and since this is a breather episode to relax and giggle well...

Oh, by the way. Since this touches a both starcraft and oregairu this should be considered as a crossover unlike Uno which doesn't have a fandom... Or has history at all!

Anyway, hope you enjoy it... Read & review please.

Greetings~

PD. Hope you enjoy my Yukinoshita characterization.


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